Trying to upgrade from Premier Pro 2.0 to CS4. Purchased upgrade license and downloaded CS4 from Adobe. Install went OK, and CS4 starts up, but that's all it does. As soon as I try to create a new project or begin working with exsisting project, CS4 crashes issueing a crash report. Have tried to reinstall several times, even download trial copy instead of providing serial number, same thing.

Contacted Adobe support using portal, first couple of submissions got a reponse suggesting I remove preferance file and reinstall, no change. Forwarded copy of crash report and details, since then nothing.

Just a bit frustrated. Have already uninstalled CS4 a couple of times. Good thought, need to physically go out there and remove all leftover CS4 stuff. Had similar problem when getting 2.0 to run. Trial copy never worked and screwed up registries. Had to fix this first and then reinstall. But Adobe couldn't tell me that either!

Very powerful tools, but I have nothing but headaches with installing anything I've tried from Adobe!

Well, forgive the delay, my job doesn't include troubleshooting Adobe problems as a full time task. Adobe finally responded after several weeks of nothing and a quire on my part if they were still alive. Claimed to have been updating support portal software and many quires went lost. Sure didn't do to good a job either. Some of my attempts to contact them are still getting lost. At least now I know which ones. At any rate, got them a copy of the crash file which they mulling over.

Anyway, still at the same place. I have completely updated all my drivers, Windows, registries, whatever! It's a clean machine. Uninstalled CS4, ran CS4 cleaner, rebooted, re-ran CS4 clear and all my other newly acquired cleaning/update toys, rebooted one more time for good luck, and bang worse then square one! Now CS4 is having problems installing all the elements. Just for fun I figured I'd do another install without cleaning the entire clock again and at least it finished. However, you guessed it, tried to make it do something Crash!

I kinda tried this already. I manually wiped out all CS4 stuff I found and some. Had to restore some things to get 2.0 working again. By the way, a full rebuild of this machine is not an option to me. It is used way to frequently with lots of special tools for other purposes on it. Adobe ought to fix their stuff! I may have to try another machine, but no. Even if it takes a year, I'm going to be a pain in Adobe's you know what since no one wants to give me my money back.

That right there could be an issue. As a general rule, it's best to have a dedicated editing rig with nothing on it but editing software. Use another machine for other tasks.

Adobe ought to fix their stuff!

While I certainly agree Adobe software should be as bug free and stable as possible, your issue just isn't experienced in the main. So something about your setup is likely at fault, and Adobe has no control over that.

Claimed to have been updating support portal software and many quires went lost.

This is true and we've changed to the #1 company in the world for handling this. However, as a result, we've had a rocky transition from one company to the other which is why I sometimes monitor these forums.

I tend to agree that this may be the best approach here. If you're using CS2, then we're talking about at least 3 years old and if you've never reformatted your system since then, chances are it looks fine on the outside, but it's a hairy mess on the inside. I find that both Macs and PC's need to be wiped about once a year...Think of it as a spring cleaning for your tech.

One other user's suggestion of purchasing a new drive makes a lot of sense - buy something cheap and give it a go. If it works, your golden and have choices. For my boxes, I actually use a cannister system to swap out start up drives. Since I'm traveling now, I don't remember which one, but if you really want to know, I can look it up. The sled and cannister is only about $50.00